Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-07-21
A SINGING RERUKE.
cIeveIand's Terrible Arraignment OF Self
seeking MischieE-Makers-

have so much to forgive lead in the
pleasant ways of peace, how wicked |
appear the traffic in sectional hate and |
the betrayal of patriotic sentiment
These words of the President of the |
United States, combining the loftiest |
patriot,sm with sober censure of re- |
cent incorporate utterances concern
ing the rescfnded battle-dag order, |
"frenzied appeals to passion for un-
worthy purposes will confirm and |
extend the feeling of confidence and
respect which is entertained for the
Administration by vast majority of
the people of this country. They are
the words of a man who conceives for
patriots a nobler duty than the sys-
tematic treasuring up of the memories
and the visible symbols OF civil strife.
a more useful occupation than the
frequent and fiery iteration of
principles which none disputes
and which are no where more heartily
and fully recognized than among those
whose defeat esta blished them forever.
They come from the heart OF Presi-
dent whose election marked the close
of the war period-the first President
of the completely reunited Republic
and they evince love of country such
as the traffickers in sectional hate cer-
tainly can not feel and probably can
not comprehend. Yet this is only a
single sentence among many equally
notable in the Presidents letter to the
Secretary of the Philadelphia Brigade
upon the reunion on the field of Get
tysburg of the Union OF ex-Confed-
crate soldiers who fought there with
such desperate va1or twenty-four years
ago.
As a dignified and proper rebuke
of the self-seeking partisans who have
of late attracted some public attention
by cursine and denouncing the Presi-
dent. this letter is well-nigh matchless
in it's perfection. A more terrible ar
raignment of the Fairchilds and Tan
ners and other apostles of bitterness
whom the flag incident brought into
prominence could not be framed without
a wide departure from those stand
ards of verbal propriety which Presi-
dent is constrained to respect. What
severer thing can be said of man
than that his conduct shows an ''insin-
cerity which conceals hatred by pro-
LESSONS of kindness" that he is a
maker of 'frenzied appeals to passion
for unworthy purposes" and that he
is engaged in ''the traffic in sectional
hate and the betrayal of patriotic sem
timent?' With rare aptness Mr..
Cleveland packs into one preg-
nant phrase a characterization of
the .'bloody-shirt'' issue which is
strictly true and stingingly Sc
severe. 1.-The traffic in sectional hate"
is phraze which throws the revealing
| light of the '.just word over the base
business in which not a few eminent
citizens of the Northern States are
still actively engaged. And this de-
served censure of Fairchild and his
kind is Joined to sentiments which ap-
peal with force to every American citi-
zen who sincerely loves his country,
his whole country. sit surely can not
be wrong" writes the President, ''to
desire the settled quiet which lights for
our entire country tho path to pros
perity and greatness; nor need the les
sons of the war be forgotten and its re-
suits jeopardized in the wish for that
genuine fraternity which 'insures Ma
tional pride and glory"
The obliteration of sectional lines
and the quieting of sectional passion
are precio US results of Mr. Cleve-
lands election. The extent to which
these results have been achieved is not
yet generally recognized. 1t is meas
ured to the public eye by the increas-
ing frequency of reunions and of ex-
changes of greetings between the sol
diers of the Union army and those who
fought against them. The coming OF
the survivors of Pickett's division to
the field of Gettysburg on the invita-
ton of the Philadelphia Brigade marks
the growth of the new feeling: But
the change has been most conspicuous
" demonstrated by the character and
the limitations of the pow-wow about
the flags. 1t was led by General Fair
child, a professional old soldier. Ii
was helped on vociferously by Corp.
Tanner, another professional old sol.
it was kept up by newspaper editors te
whom, as to the two gentlemen we
have named, the incident seemed tC
have been providentially furnished in
an unprecedentedly ''dry time" fol
partisan use against the Demo.
cratic party. But the great mass O
the people of the North were wholly
unaffected by these 'frenzied appeal:
to passion They were moved neither
by apprehension for the permanency o
the .'results of the war" nor by any
sort of sympathy with those who were
engaged in the traffic in hate. The
good sense of the South in treating thu
outbreak with the contempt it de
served responded to this feeling of in
difference at the North. The loyal cit
liens of both sections of the country
saw clearly that the agitators wer'
bawling about thing that didn't ex
ist. They could make no sane person
believe that Grover Cleveland was I
..copperhead'' or that there was any
where in his Administration a dispo
sition to put the ''Confederacy in tn
saddle" 1t was false alarm who's
falseness was everywhere recognized
even by those who raised it. And nov
the Presidents Gettysburg letter come
to put further difficulties in the way o
the persons who are pursuing what
late lamented fabulist described as g
,,of;cv af all cry and no wolf ~